Theme:
Climate Change and ECD
About the Issue
Climate change is a serious threat to humanity, especially to young children. Children are the least responsible for climate change, yet they will bear the greatest burden of its impact.
The changes in the environment, due to climate change can cause poor air quality, higher temperatures, more extreme weather (e.g., forest fires, cyclones, heat waves, floods), a reduction in freshwater and nutritious food, displacement, impacts on family livelihoods, and an increase in waterborne and other diseases. In short, climate change represents a fundamental threat to the rights of children and their caregivers. Read the climate change and ECD fact sheet here.
This thematic page, developed in partnership with the Asia-Pacific Regional Network for Early Childhood, includes key facts and resources about the intersection of climate change and early childhood development (ECD).
Why it Matters
Nearly 90 percent of the global health burden related to climate change is borne by children under 5 years old. The evidence is startling and the crisis is getting worse. However, the specific needs of young children remain largely ignored in climate change discourse and actions.
Resources
Key Facts
Advocacy Actions
Investing in Climate-Smart ECD
Key Facts
The effects of climate change on young children and pregnant mothers are a significant cause for alarm as they directly impact children’s growth and development. An estimated 710 million children live in the 45 countries that are at the highest risk of suffering the impacts of climate change. The following data show how children are affected by a mixture of food shortages, diseases, droughts, and rising sea levels:
- Young children are more vulnerable to physical environmental influences because brain development is most rapid in the early years and the quality of brain development is moderated by interactions with the environment. Disasters, conflicts, and migration resulting from climate change lead to increased adversity and toxic stress, which harm brain development. Neurological impact can include lifelong problems with children’s educational achievement, economic success and social equity.
- In 2022, 108.4 million people worldwide were forcibly displaced, including 32.6 million internal displacements due to disasters. Disaster-related internal displacement accounted for more than half (54 percent) of all new displacements in 2022.
- Approximately 90 percent of climate-related health effects will be borne by children under 5 years of age.
- Almost 17 million babies under the age of 1 year live in areas where air pollution is at least six times higher than international limits, causing them to breathe toxic air and potentially putting their brain development at risk, including risk of noncommunicable, respiratory, and infectious diseases and developmental delays that can reduce their lifelong cognitive, socio-emotional and physical potential. Air pollution is a major contributing factor in the deaths of nearly 600,000 children under 5 every year.
- Children’s lung growth can be stunted by 12.5 percent from roadside air pollution.
- Household air pollution was responsible for 3.8 million premature deaths in 2016, including more than 400,000 deaths of children under 5 years of age. The main source of household air pollution is from the use of kerosene and solid fuels such as wood in polluting stoves, open fires, and lamps.
- Pneumonia remains the leading infectious cause of death among children under 5. Child deaths caused by pneumonia are strongly linked to undernutrition, lack of safe water and sanitation, indoor air pollution, and inadequate access to health care—all challenges that are exacerbated by climate change.
- Nearly 160 million children live in high drought-severity zones.
- More than 500 million children (almost a quarter of the world’s child population) live in extremely high flood occurrence zones.
- Children are the most vulnerable to diseases such as malaria and dengue fever which will become more widespread as a result of climate change.
- More than 1 billion children live in cities. Cities are not being designed to support young children and caregivers. Unclean and unsafe outdoor city spaces (e.g., preschools and playgrounds next to busy roads) increase harmful exposure to air pollution and environmental toxins and prevent safe movement, play, and social interaction, all of which negatively impact a child’s early development. opportunities.
Advocacy Actions
Access to a clean, safe, and secure environment is foundational for all children to survive, thrive, and live in dignity. This right was reinforced and advanced in the UN General Comment 26 on Children’s Rights and the Environment, with a special focus on climate change (UN Committee on the Rights of the Child, 2023). The global community is working on behalf of the world’s youngest children to take the following actions to:
- Ensure that global and national climate-sensitive policies, systems, and national action plans address the direct and indirect impacts of climate change on the youngest children and leverage nurturing care platforms to enhance preparedness, resilience, and adaptation skills for young children, their families, and their communities.
- Distinguish children from youth and ensure that climate action plans explicitly address, budget for, coordinate efforts in, and monitor progress toward climate smart solutions for young children’s development.
- Build evidence through research and evaluation to inform policy and investment decisions and raise awareness of the central role of ECD in protecting young children from the lifelong impacts of climate change. Ensure that public investments and decisions on climate change are evidence-based and climate smart.
- Empower and finance civil society to implement locally-led and child-sensitive actions on climate change, ensuring that the voices of the youngest children—as future custodians of our planet—are heard, both directly and indirectly through their parents, caregivers, and communities, are integrated into early learning interventions.
- Invest in greening education and early childhood systems to build climate resilience in children, teachers, parents, caregivers, schools, and communities so they are better equipped to adapt to and mitigate the impacts of climate change.
Investing in Climate-Smart ECD
Research shows that climate-smart ECD investments and programs are a down payment on our future and will have significant benefits for the most vulnerable young children and families, including:
- Return on investment. High-quality ECD is one of the best investments a country can make by laying the foundation for future success and yielding improved outcomes in health, education, and economic development.
- Economic benefits. Every US dollar invested in climate adaptation can result in up to $10 in net economic gains.
- Increased resilience with access to nurturing care. ECD-focused climate actions can ensure good health, adequate nutrition, safety and security, responsive caregiving, and richer learning opportunities while reducing exposure to climate and environmental hazards. For instance, an estimated 26 percent of deaths in children under 5 years old could be prevented by addressing environmental risks.
- The fulfillment of children’s rights for a sustainable and peaceful future. By ensuring that every young child has the right to a clean, healthy, and sustainable environment, we can enable a strong foundation for a child to survive, grow, and thrive.
- Environmental benefits by amplifying children’s agency. As young children are empowered, a sense of stewardship toward the environment can be fostered among future generations to make environmentally conscious decisions while leading a just, green transition toward a sustainable future.
